PKPR News
STELLAService in TechCrunch
March 21, 2011
PKPR is proud to announce that we are now representing STELLAService, the first independent customer service ratings provider for online retailers.
To kick things off, PKPR placed an exclusive story in TechCrunch today announcing that the company has raised $2 million in early stage funding. Other coverage including VentureWire, VentureBeat, and WWD.
Stay tuned for more exciting news from STELLAService in the coming months, including exclusive rankings of top retailers and new features and tools to help consumers shop smarter online.
Solange Knowles & Chris Taylor Benefit Song
March 19, 2011
PKPR managed the U.S. launch of “Kenya”, an exclusive, ‘donate to download’ track and video by Solange Knowles, Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear and Twin Shadow. The track benefited RAIN, the Replenish Africa Initiative.
Coverage of the campaign included MTV.com, USA Today, Stereogum, Pitchfork, BET.com, SPIN, Idolator, Death + Taxes, The Quietus, and Hipster Runoff.
USA Today: Webbys + MLB = Home Run
March 15, 2011
This year, global fans around the world will be able to experience the Webby Awards live thanks to a unique partnership with the interactive media arm of Major League Baseball, annually the Internet’s largest presenter of live events.
In addition to social media and multiple stream integrations, viewers will have the ability to share in-progress highlights, interact on multiple screens using custom developed mobile phone and tablet apps, and experience a tricked-out video stream that provides not just a front row seat to the ceremony, but also the ability to participate and shape the event as it unfolds.
USA Today has the full scoop here.
The Rover “roves” the World Financial Center
March 12, 2011
The sound of Carnival carousing and swordfights filled the World Financial Center this March when it presented a production of The Rover, a 17th Century Restoration comedy by Aphra Behn, the first professional female playwright in the English language.
From March 2nd through March 20th, Aphra Behn’s biting comedy of manners transformed the bustling business hub into 17th Century Naples at the height of Carnival, including live music and songs performed by the actors themselves. The New York Classical Theatre production employed the company’s signature panoramic staging style, taking audience members up and down staircases and around mezzanines throughout the 3.5-acre venue. Helmed by director Karin Coonrod, the bawdy, full-blooded romp unfolded not just in front of the audience but all around it.
See reviews of The Rover in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Back Stage, Downtown Express, NY Theatre, and Off Off Online.
Good Housekeeping Loves FashionPlaytes.com
February 24, 2011
PKPR is thrilled to announced that we are now representing FashionPlaytes.com, an online service that lets girls age 5-12 design and wear their own clothes.
To launch the campaign, we arranged for FashionPlaytes to be tested and reviewed by the influential Good Housekeeping Research Institute. Naming it a “Best Product,” Good Housekeeping raved about the service, calling it a “great website for girls that are interested in fashion.”
Stay tuned for more exciting news from this up-and-coming company.
zozi.com Takes WABC-TV on NYC Subway Race
February 03, 2011
zozi.com is all about helping people get the most of out of their cities for less. Case in point: a race in the New York City subway system that leads contestants to the Big Apple undergrounds’ hidden secrets and passageways. zozi.com co-founder Dan Gruneberg shows WABC-TV’s Lauren Glassberg how zozi can help New Yorkers experience the city’s coolest and most unique activities without breaking the bank.
Net Neutrality, Privacy Top Webby Awards List
January 21, 2011
On the heels of the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web last month, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) has identified security, privacy, copyright law, net neutrality, and maintaining an open Web as the top five challenges facing the medium in the next five years.
Dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet, IADAS’ 750 global members serve as the judging body of The Webby Awards, the leading international honors for excellence on the Internet. Members of the Academy range from Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, Martha Stewart, and Arianna Huffington to Federated Media founder John Battelle and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
Coverage of the Academy’s report ranged from Huffington Post and Time.com to Mediabistro and Portfolio.
New York Times: A Musical About Robert Moses?
January 13, 2011
Highlights from a forthcoming full-length musical exploring the controversial life and legacy of urban planner Robert Moses will have its world premiere at the World Financial Center Winter Garden on Saturday, January 15th.
In an in depth preview on the front page of the Arts section of the New York Times today, reporter Robin Pogrebrin went behind-the-scenes with Moses biographer Robert Caro to meet the musical’s composer, Gary S. Fagin, and celebrated actor and singer Rinde Eckert, who will portray the city’s “Master Builder.”
Rock & Roll Circus at Lincoln Center
January 12, 2011
The Rock & Roll Circus was a two-day, three-ring, musical extravaganza featuring Ariel Pink, Amazing Baby, Nick Zinner and Aska, Saint Motel, contortionist, acrobats, and more under the 40,000 square foot Big Apple Circus Tent at Lincoln Center on January 3rd and 4th.
Picking up where the best of 1968’s legendary rock superstars left off, the all-new Rock & Roll Circus was a raucous, cutting-edge marriage of the best of circus spectacle and today’s top musicians
Coverage included NBC New York, New York Press, BrooklynVegan, Stereogum, Village Voice, FREEwilliamsburg, The Fader, Flavorpill, Huffington Post, SPIN, PAPER, New York Times, BlackBook, WNYC, This Week in New York, and Bumpershine,
Medieval Play Comes to Life on NYC Streets
December 20, 2010
The medieval mystery play got a 21st century update in December when the Christmas story was brought to life on the streets of New York City through a raucous mix of music, dance, song, and drink.
In Strangers and Other Angels, Manhattan’s Morningside Heights became the backdrop for a wild, joyful re-imagination of the centuries-old Second Shepherd’s Play. The production wound inside and outside venues throughout the neighborhood, from Sakura Park near Riverside Church to the Union Theological Seminary. Gathering crowds along the way, the performance culminated with a celebratory dance involving the entire cast and audience and food and drink for all to share.
PKPR placed stories in NY Daily News, WNYC, Metro NY, NY1, Time Out New York Kids, NY Press and New York Times.
NYC’s Largest Residential Green Roof Unveiled
December 18, 2010
Zeckendorf Towers, the famed pyramid-topped building that initiated the revitalization of Union Square more than 20 years ago, set a new benchmark for the booming neighborhood with the opening of the city’s largest residential green roof last month.
Located at One Irving Place, the 14,000 square-foot green roof will put the full block, mixed-use property at the forefront of New York City’s new green roof initiative. In late September, Mayor Michael Bloomberg kicked off NYC Green Infrastructure, a major campaign aimed at integrating infrastructure, such as green roofs, to improve water and air quality, cool the City, and reduce energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions.
Coverage included a front page Sunday real estate section story in the New York Times, NY1, Metro NY, Crain’s NY Business , Curbed NY, DNAinfo and Real Estate Weekly.
Live Out Loud Video Inspires Gay Youth
December 17, 2010
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In the midst of a national wave of anti-gay bullying and violence, a powerful short video is revealing how one person can change a school - and the lives of hundreds of gay and straight youth - in just one day.
Academy Award-winning screenwriter Lance Black (“Milk”) is one of the many LGBT leaders participating in The Homecoming Project, Live Out Loud’s grassroots initiative that brings successful gay adults back to their high schools to share their stories, lessons, and hope with today’s students.
PKPR placed stories on the video in numerous blogs including Queerty, Gawker, The Miami Herald, Logo TV’s 365Gay.com, and AfterElton.
For more on The Homecoming Project, read Black’s first-hand essay on his return to his high school at MTV.com, check out this interview in 2BMag with Live Out Loud founder Leo Preziosi, or see Time Out New York’s round-up on the most effective organizations supporting gay youth.
Canstruction Dazzles NYC
November 29, 2010
Over 100,000 full cans of food were transformed into epic eye candy when they were assembled into fanciful, mind-boggling sculptures at the World Financial Center Winter Garden this month.
The fantastical installations, created by 25 teams of architects and engineers, were part of Canstruction, an exhibit and design competition that drops jaws in more ways than one. In addition to being a visual smorgasbord for New Yorkers to feast their eyes on, Canstruction is an inspired campaign aimed at raising hunger awareness during the Thanksgiving season. At the closing of the exhibit, the pop art was dismantled and donated to City Harvest for distribution to programs that feed hungry New Yorkers.
Coverage of the exhibition included CNN, New York Times, New York Post, WABC, Metro, Time Out New York, Flavorpill, NBC New York, and Gothamist.
Calvin Trillin Honored at Moth Ball
November 24, 2010
The Moth presented acclaimed journalist, novelist, and humorist Calvin Trillin with the Moth Storytelling Award at its annual Moth Ball on Tuesday, November 16th at Capitale in New York City.
Trillin’s honor was the centerpiece of a star-studded evening celebrating The Moth, the 14-year old non-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. A strong literary voice chronicling the American scene for more than four decades, Trillin has taken storytelling to new heights in every conceivable genre and medium from childhood memoir to food essay to political satire. His diverse and prolific career includes contributing to the New Yorker since 1963 and writing his weekly “Deadline Poet” column for the Nation since 1990.
To build buzz leading up to the gala fundraiser, PKPR placed in depth previews in the Wall Street Journal, Metro, Time Out New York, and Gothamist.
Post-coverage of the event included The New York Times, VanityFair.com, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, The New Yorker, WNYC, NBC New York, Time Out New York, Flavorpill, Mediabistro, and Guest of a Guest.
Opera on Internet Addiction Stirs Controversy
November 23, 2010
In a world increasingly dominated by texts and tweets, a timely new opera offered a digital-age take on the time-honored tragic heroine.
“The Empty Hours” (Las Horas Vacias) by acclaimed Spanish composer Ricardo Llorca had its staged world premiere at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on November 19th. The tale of a lonely woman whose obsession with the internet fuels an extraordinary fantasy world, “The Empty Hours” was presented by the New York Opera Society in a special, one-night only performance.
PKPR secured an in-depth feature on the opera in the Wall Street Journal (“The Music of Modern Mania”), and previews on WNET’s Sunday Arts, WNYC, and TheaterMania.
We also leveraged the opera’s Internet theme to generate buzz in outlets like Time.com, Wired.com, Time Out New York, and Mediabistro.
Watch the full episode. See more SundayArts.
Eggers, James win Dayton Literary Peace Prize
November 15, 2010
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers and The Book Of Night Women by Marlon James were named winners of the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction and fiction, respectively.
“It can be lonely, believing that books can still change how we think,” said James. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize reminds us that the book is still our most eloquent tool to speak truth to power, and to bear witness to the good and not so good in human nature.
Coverage of this year’s winners ranged from Huffington Post and UTNE Reader to Minnesota Public Radio and MediaBistro.
Raves for Second Issue of Vintage Magazine
November 08, 2010
“A reading experience so unique, there could never be an app for that.” - San Francisco Chronicle
“The mag illuminates the possibilities of print.” - The National Post
“Perusing Vintage is like sipping a Tanqueray and tonic at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore—a pleasurable blast from the past.” - Mediapost
Those are just a few of the accolades the press has heaped upon the much-anticipated second issue of Vintage Magazine. Other fans range from influential design critic Stephen Heller, who writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review to Mr. Magazine to BettyConfidential.
SpaFinder Slideshow on Huffington Post Travel
October 29, 2010
Check out this awesome photo gallery on Huffington Post of the world’s top spas as selected by thousands of fans in the 2010 SpaFinder.com Reader’s Choice Awards.
Shepard Fairey Mural at World Financial Center
October 11, 2010
Celebrated artist Shepard Fairey (of the Obama “Hope” poster fame) guided more than 100 young New Yorkers in creating a powerful 40-foot long mural that made its public debut at the World Financial Center this month. The mural, A Positive Thought Cannot Be Denied, expresses the kids’ views on teen violence, the environment, education and other issues relating to social justice.
Coverage included WNET Sunday Arts (video below), Time Out New York, Village Voice, Time Out New York Kids, Gothamist, DNAinfo.com, Newsday, Curated, and The Dirt Floor.
SpaFinder Deal Days on TV Nationwide
October 01, 2010
PKPR secured major coverage for SpaFinder Deal Days in markets across the country, from New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and San Diego to Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle, Portland, and Birmingham. Check out some of the highlights below.